Heather Boushey, Ann O’Leary, Neera Tanden

If Hillary Clinton is elected president in November and can use the office to broaden and strengthen the social safety net, three women are likely to be her policy gatekeepers: Ann O’Leary, Neera Tanden and Heather Boushey. Collectively, they have tackled some of the candidate’s pet issues, from health care to education reform, income inequality to the hardships facing working families. Straddling the line between policy wonks and confidantes, they have left their fingerprints all over the Democratic platform and, in August, were named members of the candidate’s presidential transition team.

Q&A: Ann O’Leary

Favorite book this year:

“Stronger Together: A Blueprint for America’s Future,” by Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine. I was lucky to read an advance copy, and I highly recommend!

Does America need to be “made great again”?

America is great and getting better every year. We need to keep building on the progress we have made, not go backwards.

Best Trump historical comparison:

I have been struck by how much Donald Trump’s words and actions remind me of the setting of Erik Larson’s book, “In the Garden of Beasts.” It tells the story of the American ambassador to Germany right before WWII who was desperately calling out to U.S. officials to warn them about Hitler’s rhetoric and the possibility that his rhetoric would lead to dire consequences.

Something to miss about President Obama?

All of the photos of him delighting children in the Oval Office and being a role model to a whole generation of kids.

A word of advice to the next president:

Persevere.

Q&A: Neera Tanden

Favorite book this year:

“The Night Manager,” by John Le Carré.

Does America need to be “made great again”?

No. America is a great country and is becoming greater.

Best Trump historical comparison:

George Wallace.

Something to miss about President Obama?

His maturity. His willingness to treat the American people like adults.

A word of advice to the next president:

Focus on wages and income. That will be the ball game for whoever is president.

A lawyer by training, O’Leary had Clinton’s ear as a domestic policy official in the Bill Clinton White House and as Hillary Clinton’s senior policy adviser in the Senate, pushing a labor and education agenda. After stints at progressive think tanks focusing also on women and family policies, she has worked on the Clinton campaign to increase the visibility of issues like affordable child care and paid family and medical leave, in addition to sourcing ideas from outside advisers and refining them into pragmatic policies that Clinton can embrace.

Q&A: Heather Boushey

Favorite book this year:

“Fates and Furies,” by Lauren Groff.

Does America need to be “made great again”?

America is pretty great, but there’s plenty of stuff we need to accomplish to make it even greater.

Something to miss about President Obama?

His compassion and candor. And Michelle’s vegetable garden.

A word of advice to the next president:

Good jobs.

Tanden, another veteran Clinton aide, oversees perhaps the most important font of new liberal policy ideas as president and CEO of the Center for American Progress. Funded by donors with deep ties to Clinton, the center has produced policy memos that undergird the candidate’s platform, including a plan to combat wage stagnation and inequality. Tanden herself is an expert on one of Clinton’s long-held policy interests, health care reform, and worked on President Obama’s health care team at the Department of Health and Human Services. Over the course of the 2016 campaign, she has also emerged as one of Clinton’s staunchest defenders on Twitter, where she has fended off relentless “Bernie Bros.”

Boushey, who has been described as Clinton’s “economic inequality whisperer,” is executive director and chief economist for another think tank, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. A leading advocate of paid family leave, this year she published Finding Time: The Economics of Work-Life Conflict, which insists that the federal government draw up a new social contract to help women find balance between their careers and families. When Clinton opines on family-friendly policies that can bump workforce participation and economic growth, she echoes Boushey’s body of academic work.

That Clinton herself identifies as a policy wonk and enjoys going into the weeds of research makes the roles of O’Leary, Tanden and Boushey in her campaign all the more important. And in a Clinton administration that would most likely be 50 percent women, you can expect the three to be prominent players, either in front of the curtain or behind it.